Missing Data#

All of the models can handle missing data. For performance reasons, the default is not to do any checking for missing data. If, however, you would like for missing data to be handled internally, you can do so by using the missing keyword argument. The default is to do nothing

In [1]: import statsmodels.api as sm

In [2]: data = sm.datasets.longley.load()

In [3]: data.exog = sm.add_constant(data.exog)

# add in some missing data
In [4]: missing_idx = np.array([False] * len(data.endog))

In [5]: missing_idx[[4, 10, 15]] = True

In [6]: data.endog[missing_idx] = np.nan

In [7]: ols_model = sm.OLS(data.endog, data.exog)

In [8]: ols_fit = ols_model.fit()

In [9]: print(ols_fit.params)
const     NaN
GNPDEFL   NaN
GNP       NaN
UNEMP     NaN
ARMED     NaN
POP       NaN
YEAR      NaN
dtype: float64

This silently fails and all of the model parameters are NaN, which is probably not what you expected. If you are not sure whether or not you have missing data you can use missing = ‘raise’. This will raise a MissingDataError during model instantiation if missing data is present so that you know something was wrong in your input data.

In [10]: ols_model = sm.OLS(data.endog, data.exog, missing='raise')
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
MissingDataError                          Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[10], line 1
----> 1 ols_model = sm.OLS(data.endog, data.exog, missing='raise')

File /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/statsmodels/regression/linear_model.py:1040, in OLS.__init__(self, endog, exog, missing, hasconst, **kwargs)
   1035     msg = (
   1036         "Weights are not supported in OLS and will be ignored"
   1037         "An exception will be raised in the next version."
   1038     )
   1039     warnings.warn(msg, ValueWarning, stacklevel=2)
-> 1040 super().__init__(endog, exog, missing=missing, hasconst=hasconst, **kwargs)
   1041 if "weights" in self._init_keys:
   1042     self._init_keys.remove("weights")

File /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/statsmodels/regression/linear_model.py:850, in WLS.__init__(self, endog, exog, weights, missing, hasconst, **kwargs)
    848 else:
    849     weights = weights.squeeze()
--> 850 super().__init__(
    851     endog, exog, missing=missing, weights=weights, hasconst=hasconst, **kwargs
    852 )
    853 nobs = self.exog.shape[0]
    854 weights = self.weights

File /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/statsmodels/regression/linear_model.py:246, in RegressionModel.__init__(self, endog, exog, **kwargs)
    245 def __init__(self, endog, exog, **kwargs):
--> 246     super().__init__(endog, exog, **kwargs)
    247     self.pinv_wexog: Float64Array | None = None
    248     self._data_attr.extend(["pinv_wexog", "wendog", "wexog", "weights"])

File /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/statsmodels/base/model.py:287, in LikelihoodModel.__init__(self, endog, exog, **kwargs)
    286 def __init__(self, endog, exog=None, **kwargs):
--> 287     super().__init__(endog, exog, **kwargs)
    288     self.initialize()

File /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/statsmodels/base/model.py:102, in Model.__init__(self, endog, exog, **kwargs)
    100 missing = kwargs.pop("missing", "none")
    101 hasconst = kwargs.pop("hasconst", None)
--> 102 self.data = self._handle_data(endog, exog, missing, hasconst, **kwargs)
    103 self.k_constant = self.data.k_constant
    104 self.exog = self.data.exog

File /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/statsmodels/base/model.py:143, in Model._handle_data(self, endog, exog, missing, hasconst, **kwargs)
    142 def _handle_data(self, endog, exog, missing, hasconst, **kwargs):
--> 143     data = handle_data(endog, exog, missing, hasconst, **kwargs)
    144     # kwargs arrays could have changed, easier to just attach here
    145     for key in kwargs:

File /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/statsmodels/base/data.py:747, in handle_data(endog, exog, missing, hasconst, **kwargs)
    744     exog = np.asarray(exog)
    746 klass = handle_data_class_factory(endog, exog)
--> 747 return klass(endog, exog=exog, missing=missing, hasconst=hasconst, **kwargs)

File /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/statsmodels/base/data.py:76, in ModelData.__init__(self, endog, exog, missing, hasconst, **kwargs)
     74     self.formula = kwargs.pop("formula")
     75 if missing != "none":
---> 76     arrays, nan_idx = self.handle_missing(endog, exog, missing, **kwargs)
     77     self.missing_row_idx = nan_idx
     78     self.__dict__.update(arrays)  # attach all the data arrays

File /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/statsmodels/base/data.py:319, in ModelData.handle_missing(cls, endog, exog, missing, **kwargs)
    316     return combined, []
    318 elif missing == "raise":
--> 319     raise MissingDataError("NaNs were encountered in the data")
    321 elif missing == "drop":
    322     nan_mask = ~nan_mask

MissingDataError: NaNs were encountered in the data

If you want statsmodels to handle the missing data by dropping the observations, use missing = ‘drop’.

In [11]: ols_model = sm.OLS(data.endog, data.exog, missing='drop')

We are considering adding a configuration framework so that you can set the option with a global setting.